The US government announced a new $173 million funding for the pandemic in Bangladesh on Monday while starting the last round of the “crucial” Covid19 management training for the newly recruited doctors.
Ambassador Earl Miller announced the new fund in a virtual event and said this would also be used, through the USAID, to a new food assistance programme for 100,000 urban poor living in low-income areas of Dhaka, and to strengthen development activities and post-COVID19 recovery in Bangladesh.
The event marked the last batch of newly recruited Bangladeshi doctors participating in a joint USAID- Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS)-offered, two-day, in-person training focused on COVID-19 infection prevention and control (IPC) and case management.
At the conclusion of this week’s course, 1,000 new doctors will have participated in the two-day training. They in turn will train 3,000 newly recruited nurses and other health care practitioners in their respective hospitals.
Dr Ayesha Rahman Shama, who is posted at the Kurmitola Hospital, said she was very fortunate to have the training.
“I joined the service at a challenging time. Its an emergency situation. And I am satisfied with the training which helped me a lot to build my confidence since I am a newcomer and I had no knowledge about the infection prevention and control measures and how to use PPE,” she said as she received the training soon after the joining the service in May.
Dr Md Ahsanul Kabir who is posted at the new makeshift hospital at Bashundhara Convention Center also considered him ‘lucky’ to get the training soon after joining the service.
“I am very satisfied and grateful to the DGHS and USAID for the opportunity,” he said. “We are now more aware of managing covid19 patients. This training helps us strengthen our capacity to covid19 management with the available logistics”.
Prof Saniya Tahmina, Additional Director General (planning and development) for Health, thanked the US government for their support during this time of crisis.
She said the training materials are open for all doctors in the website.
The US’s new funding builds on more than $1 billion in health assistance to Bangladesh over the past 20 years.
Since the outbreak of COVID19, the US government has committed more than $1 billion in the USAID emergency health, humanitarian, economic, and development assistance specifically aimed at helping governments, international organisations, and NGOs fight the pandemic.
This funding will save lives by improving public health education; protecting healthcare facilities; and increasing laboratory, disease-surveillance, and rapid-response capacity in more than 120 countries, according to the USAID.
The new funding in Bangladesh announced Monday includes $17 million in health and humanitarian assistance to help respond to COVID19.
The additional assistance will support a new programme to provide cash-based transfers for food to 100,000 urban poor living in low-income areas of Kalyanpur and Sattala Bosti, and re-establish linkages between markets and local agricultural production, as well as support supply chains.
This new round of assistance will also expand support for community surveillance, infection prevention and control activities, including training for heroic frontline responders, and increase knowledge and dispel myths and misconceptions about the disease.
Additionally, USAID will initiate new activities to improve case management and strengthen regulatory and quality standards for local production of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies for local use as well as for export worldwide, helping to keep people employed and benefitting the Bangladeshi economy.
“The United States is proud to provide financial and technical assistance for Bangladesh's COVID-19 readiness and response efforts,” the ambassador Miller said.
“I am especially pleased our new USAID funding will provide life-saving food assistance to thousands of urban, under-privileged people in Dhaka. It is one more way that we are partnering with Bangladesh to address the impact of COVID-19.”
In addition to supporting COVID-19 and humanitarian response efforts, on May 3, USAID Mission Director Derrick Brown signed a bilateral agreement amendment with the government of Bangladesh to support more than $156 million in development activities in the country.
These activities will help Bangladesh address development challenges, including the impact of COVID-19, that threaten to undermine its economic potential and stability and they exemplify the strong partnership between our two countries.
“I’m proud that USAID has been a long-standing partner of Bangladesh and is committed to helping achieve Bangladesh’s goal of becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2031,” Mission Director Brown said on Monday.
The US government, through USAID, has provided more than $7 billion in development assistance to Bangladesh since independence.
